Friday, November 14, 2003

I watched, nauseated, last night on Fox News as "the Beltway Boys" (Fred Barnes, Morton Kondracke, Brit Hume, and whatever token chick they had dragged in for the show) fell all over themselves and one another to declare how richly Roy Moore deserved removal from his job. They could hardly contain themselves over this triumph of virtue.

All agreed that Judge Moore really had no case. I mean, a federal judge had issued an order. You don't mess around with something like that--when the king issues a decree, you salute and obey it.

"Maybe when he becomes governor of Alabama, he can change the law that caused all this trouble," offered Token Chick, demonstrating her stultifying ignorance of the very case she had volunteered to opine on. Of course, Roy Moore's entire case hinged on the fact that there is no law outlawing the display of the Ten Commandments in Alabama or anywhere else, and that Myron Thompson's ruling was an unjustified intrusion of federal power into state business.

Thompson, the unelected federal judge who ordered the monument removed despite the express wishes of the Alabama electorate, never cited a single law or statute in his decision--only judicial precedent. All who crow about the supposed "rule of law" have yet to produce a single law written anywhere on which Thompson based his ruling. Instead of "rule of law," what's being excercised is "rule of lawyers," which is an entirely different thing.

Sensing disaster, "conservative" Fred Barnes put Token Chick's notion to rest, lest anyone be frightened by the ominous specter of an uppity American governor carrying out the will of his own voting constituency.

"Well, it was a federal judge who issued the order, so he wouldn't be able to do anything about it as governor," Fred smiled.

Translation: The federal government reigns supreme over the state. And the unelected federal judges reign supreme over the federal government. In other words, Roy Moore's got nothing to say about it, because we live in a judicial monarchy. And judging by Fred's beatific smile, That's a Good Thing (as Martha Stewart says).